Roberto Donadoni reportedly in frame to replace Gennaro Gattuso as coach of Milan

After the Derby della Madonnina loss to Inter Milan, these kinds of rumors were bound to start popping up.

Former Bologna manager Roberto Donadoni is rumored to be in frame to be the next head coach of AC Milan, as Leonardo, and the rest of the management of the club, are reportedly growing impatient with the results under Gennaro Gattuso.

Roberto Donadoni is a legendary Milan player, having played for Milan from 1986 to 1996 and again from 1997 to 1999. He made over 300 appearances for the Rossoneri and was also a mainstay in the Italy national team in the late 80s and early 90s.

He briefly played for the New York/New Jersey Metrostars of MLS (now New York Red Bulls) after starting his career at Atalanta.

He has managed a number of teams in managerial career, starting out at Lecco, moving to Livorno (twice), Genoa, and the Italian national team, where he lead the Azzurri to a quarterfinal appearance at Euro 2008, losing to Spain. He went on to manage Napoli, Cagliari and Parma before moving on the Bologna after Parma went bankrupt.

Donadoni got Parma to sixth place in the table in the 2014 season, and the club would have played in the Europa League, but the financial implosion resulted in the club having to start over in Serie D and Donadoni left for Bologna. He steered Bologna to a 14th place finish in the 2015-16 season, a 15th place finish in 2016-17, and another 15th place finish last season, and was replaced by another Milan legend, Filippo Inzaghi this past summer after his contract was not renewed.

Donadoni would not be an exciting name to replace Gattuso, but he would bring a wealth of experience with him. However, his less-than-stellar time with Bologna should give pause to this rumor.

Leonardo and Paolo Maldini have made a number of good moves after coming aboard under Elliott Management, and rumors of coaching changes are all the rage after a derby loss. Gattuso’s seat at Milan might be getting hot, and it might be tempting to bring in yet another Milan legend to take the head coaching role at Milan, but this rumor seems rather unlikely, if for no other reason that SportItalia even mentioned Riccardo Montolivo and his agent as pushing for the change. Montolivo has been frozen out of the squad by Gattuso, and appears to have an axe to grind with Rino, so this could all be sour grapes and a disgruntled player starting rumors to make his coach’s life miserable.